Grove of Harmony
by BML Hillen-Keene
Summary: The Queen asks Cain to do a great service to save the OZ once more. His task, to take Ambrose/Glitch to the Grove of Harmony.


_Ok, yes I did it, I wrote a Tin Man fanfic. This is merely the prologue. I have made Ambrose the queens brother, just because I read a fic where he was and kind of liked the idea. As this is the prologue I will not try to ex0lain what is going on yet. Ambrose is, to all intents and purposes, Glitch, so Cain will refer to him as Glitch most of the time. It is my belief that Glitch is Ambrose, just not the bit that makes him logical, therefore when the brain was reinserted Ambrose retained all of his glitches, such as forgetting who people are, and becoming easily confused, and repeating himself, though if reminded and prompted he can be the advisor we see in his memories, just like how in the series he could remember some very obscure things merely by being prompted. I reckon if he was told he was supposed to be advising the queen he could slip into that role easily enough for as long as needed. I make no sense, hopefully the story will explain my idea in a more accessible fashion._

**Grove of Harmony**

_Prologue_

"Mister Cain." the Queen said in welcome, her face somewhat drawn, and Cain could only wonder if something had befallen DG or even Azkadeilia, or her consort, he could think of nothing else that would make her look so worried. "I am glad you have come, for I have a favour to ask of you that I cannot entrust to anyone else."

"Of course my Queen." he offered, knowing better than to speak his own mind, she would tell him when she was ready, she was the Queen, and he would wait for her.

"A terrible thing has occurred Mister Cain, one that might very well threaten the whole of the OZ once again." she sighed then, and Cain wondered what could possibly have happened; he had heard no word of witches or armies, no whispers of treachery in all of the five years since the OZ had been saved. But he said nothing and waited. She looked at him, holding his gaze, as if weighing him. "My brother is in grave danger Mister Cain, and I need you to do all that you can to protect him, for he holds something very precious, and without it, the OZ could not hope to continue."

"Brother?" the word was startled out of him, he had not even heard rumours that the queen had a brother.

She smiled then at him, as if used to this reaction. "You have already spent some considerable timer in his company, and seem to have a sincere friendship with him, which is why I have chosen you for this task."

Cain quickly thought over who he knew at the palace and who he was particularly close to… "Glitch?" he asked finally, sure he looked as shocked as he felt.

The Queen nodded, a slightly amused expression weaved its way onto her face before the worried one fought it down. "Glitch was a nickname I had given him when we were children." she answered, and he could see the wistful emotion fleet through her eyes before she focused on him completely.

The one thing Cain had realised about Ambrose, after the doctors had finally managed to reintegrate the other half of his brain once again, was that he was essentially Glitch, a little more aware of formalities when the time called for them, able to store a vast array of knowledge and remember it all with only a little prompting, and somewhat more settled in reality; but he still forgot who people were and if he knew them; he was still remarkably clumsy for someone so skilled at dance and martial arts, and he still had all that wide eyed optimism in bags. The only real difference between the Glitch he had met and the Ambrose who advised the queen, was that he could make his wide eyed optimism sound like something everyone should take very seriously, and do, even if it was the worst idea known to man--manipulative, that was the word, Glitch with a full set of marbles was simply Glitch with a manipulative streak.

"What danger your majesty?" he asked then, wondering why Glitch had never told him he was one of the royal family.

"Son's along our line are a rare thing Mr Cain, so Ambrose's birth was a quiet affair, as they rarely live long lives and die before reaching adulthood. But even from the beginning it was obvious there was something special about my brother. He has a gift Mr Cain, one that in the wrong hands can rain destruction down upon us. I can only thank the stars that the Witch knew not of him or his power." she paused there, closing her eyes briefly, before refocusing her gaze on Cain. "You are the only one I can ask to complete this task, the only one my brother will trust enough, the only one I can trust enough to leave with him."

Cain frowned, this all sounded very ominous, and yet he still didn't have a clue what was actually going on. "Your majesty, I will of course undertake this mission, but I would like to know just what is going on, what this power is, why it needs protecting and just where are we to go?"

The Queen nodded, looking pleased. "Yes, you are the perfect choice. Ambrose has a gift, much like the one DG holds, but hers is tempered by the magic passed down through our line, his is not. My brother trusts Mr. Cain, you must actively work to lose that trust, and without even trying he can draw you to him, and you cannot help but go… is that not so?" she eyed him then.

Unbidden came the memory of their time in the realm of the unwanted, when Glitch had asked for money for that answer box, and Cain had surprised himself by actually going to make the thing work for him, he had convinced himself after the fact that it had simply been to forestall any annoyance from the head case, but in honesty, it had simply been so as not to disappoint that childlike excitement. He could even recall more recent moments. Glitch had wormed past his defences faster than even DG had. He nodded in response to the queens question.

"Ambrose is unaware of all that he holds, what you experience is merely the little that overflows, most males in my line had to concentrate all their energy to do as much as he does without thinking, so just imagine what he could do if he tried." she did not give him a chance to think too hard, but what he did come up with was sort of horrifying. "if in the wrong hands, Ambrose could bring the whole of the OZ to ruin, he could bring every person under his spell with little effort, and you would _want_ to join him, you would do anything he asked of you, merely to please him. If Ambrose was anyone other than who he is, if he had even the smallest glimmer of evil inside him we would be serving him. My family believe that the reason the male child dies so young is because this gift is too corrupting and the constant battle kills them, my dear brother was never corrupted, heaven knows how, but I am glad for it."

"But something comes now that can?" Cain questioned.

"My brother trusts Mr. Cain, that is his downfall, there is someone out there who will gain his trust and use it to control him and his gift. We believe we know who this person is, but I need for Ambrose to be taken from the palace, the safest place for him is the grove of Harmony, do you know of it?"

Cain had indeed heard of this place, but only in stories, a mythical place of the innocent it was said, and he was unsurprised to find that the idea of Glitch being there seemed almost normal. Ambrose was so terribly innocent sometimes. It lay to the west they said, past the old witches tower, towards the edge of the OZ. he nodded slowly.

"Good, you must take him there as quickly as you can, tell no one, and do not return here, not even on summons from myself, You will know when you can return, the Grove will tell you when it is safe to venture out once again." she waited for him to nod his agreement before getting to her feet and moving quickly to a door to the side of the room and opening it. "Ambrose, quickly now." she called.

"What--?" Cain hear from with the other room, in Glitches confused tones. "Oh, Neara, what is it? I'm rather busy, and I'm sure there's not another advice meeting for at least an hour."

There was a fond exasperation in the Queens voice when she replied. "Little brother, you need to go now, it's been arranged. Mr. Cain shall accompany you."

Glitches head peeked out of the room and he frowned a little. "Mr. Cain?" he looked at the queen for a moment. "Do I know a Mr. Cain?" he asked.

Cain could not help the habitual answer he normally gave. "Well hello to you too sweetheart." before inwardly cringing at the fact that he had done so to the Queens brother, in her presence. But she did not seem terribly put out by it, in fact she seemed rather grateful at the way Glitches eyes lit up in recognition.

"Cain! Whatever are you doing here?" Cain saw the moment he realised just what was going on, he had been kind of grateful that this had not changed about the Glitch he had first met, it was almost comforting to know that Ambrose had always been like this. "Oh dear," he cast a reproachful glance to the queen. "Neara, you promised not to go overboard."

"I did no such thing Ambrose, you need an escort, and Mr. Cain is the only one I trust to do it correctly." the Queen told him her tone brooking no argument.

There was a moment when Cain was nearly convinced Glitch would argue, but he didn't, just nodded a little unhappily and stepped into the room fully. Pulling a small satchel with him to sling round his shoulders. He made no more move towards Cain though, but looked at the Queen, in that way that was his complete formal persona, the one Cain knew as Ambrose. "Do you truly believe this is necessary my Queen?" he asked.

The Queen nodded, reaching out to gently touch Ambrose's cheek. "Yes my advisor, I do."

Ambrose affected a sweeping graceful bow to her then. "Then I shall go forth as you wish." when he straightened he looked at Cain. "It appears we'll be going on another adventure Cain." he said.

Cain offered a small twitch of his lips. "I'll lead, you follow."

Glitch laughed slightly. But before making his way to Cain he turned once more to the Queen. "Be safe Nearalynn."

"You too Glitch." the did not hug, through Cain fancied that they perhaps had in another way, and Glitch made his way to him.

"Didn't you bring anything? Or are you going to go all boy scout on me again? You know, I can ask some people if you could speak to them about your boy scout syndrome, they could really help, I mean they worked wonders on me, I'm practically back to normal--"

"Somehow Glitch, I don't think you could ever be normal." Cain found himself saying, surprised that it didn't seem wrong, despite his newfound knowledge as to Glitches ancestry. He caught the Queens eye as he pulled her study door shut behind them and nodded once, he would do all in his power to make sure Glitch got to the Grove of Harmony safe and whole.

The Queen nodded back, and he could feel her trust in him to complete this task. He shut the door with a small snap.

__

Hmmm, scary huh… ah well. I had the Queen give Ambrose Glitch as a nickname, because I though it would be rather nice for him to have recalled a name from his past that he could use, I can just imagine a little princess Nearalynn teasing her little brother for being so flaky and repeating himself a lot sing-songing "I'm going to call you Glitch, because your synapses don't fire right!" and it being the one thought Glitch managed to hold on to. And I have named the Queen, badly I know, but she needed a name!


End file.
